The Hindu : Lisnard dumps Dupuis

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 08, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Lisnard dumps Dupuis

By K. Keerthivasan

An acrobatic Jean-Rene Lisnard in action. - Photo: R. Ragu

CHENNAI JAN. 7. Anthony Dupuis of France floated dangerously in the first round against Alexander Popp on Monday.

Slipping into unforced errors, the Frenchman, seeded eighth here, was lucky to survive a tough third set tie-breaker then. But against a tough baseliner in Jean-Rene Lisnard of France, Dupuis sunk to a 5-7, 3-6 defeat in the second round of the Tata Open tennis championship at the Nungambakkam Stadium here on Wednesday.

The 23-year-old Lisnard from Cannes, whose career-best was a semifinal appearance here before losing to the eventual champion Paradorn Srichaphan, started rather shakily in the first set losing his serve in the first game as Dupuis ran up a 3-2 lead.

Dupuis' powerful shots from the backcourt helped him hold his serves and kept him going during tough situations. But in the twelfth game, serving at 5-6, Lisnard pressed on the accelerator coming up with some wonderful deep shots from the baseline. At 30-40, Dupuis failed to negotiate a simple approach volley giving Lisnard the first set.

Matching Dupuis from the backcourt, Lisnard got the break in the eighth game of the second set. An overhead smash helped Lisnard go 5-3 up. Serving to stay in the match in the ninth game, Dupuis saved one match point before netting a return to crash out.

The win was a testimony to Lisnard's consistency from the backcourt, besides he passed Dupuis whenever the eighth seed approached the net. Lisnard plays with a stoic demeanour unlike Dupuis who tends to lose his concentration on and off. Lisnard also had a good percentage of his first serve clicking and had four aces to boot.

"I came here a week early to practice. He is a powerful opponent but I played well from the baseline to win,'' said Lisnard, who had beaten Dupuis when they last met in Sydney last year.

"My feeling was not good on the court for the last two days. I was moving slower today,'' said Dupuis, who later dashed off to the airport to catch the flight to Bangkok enroute to Auckland to be in time for the qualifying rounds.

David Ferrer of Spain became the third seeded player after Rafael Nadal and Anthony Dupuis to bow out of the championship.

The Spaniard, seeded seventh, went down tamely to Russian Igor Andreev 2-6, 3-6 in the second round in 66 minutes.

Ferrer started on the right note breaking Andreev in the second game to go 2-0 up. From the third game, it was Andreev's show altogether as he outplayed the Spaniard from the baseline. The second set followed in a similar pattern, before Andreev started to call the shots.

The second seed and crowd favourite Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand had another uneventful day in office as he quickly disposed of Harel Levy of Israel 6-2, 6-2 to move into the third round.

Prakash-Stephen pair lose

It was an emotional moment when Margaret arrived in her wheelchair accompanied by Robert and Anand to watch her grandsons - Prakash and Stephen play.

Much later, when Margaret had left, a young girl commented, "There is so much in the family.''

The Tata Open has indeed become a family affair for the Amritraj's starting last year where as wild cards Prakash and Stephen lost in the first round.

Watched by the whole family including Vijay, the Prakash-Stephan pair fought well but the Spanish pair of Alex Lopez Moron and Albert Portas had enough ammunition to post a 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 in the first round.

After losing the first set rather tamely, Prakash-Stephen came back strongly in the second. Keeping their nerves when down 5-6 in the tie-breaker, Stephen attacked the net and an overhead smash by him enabled the cousins to pocket the second set tie-breaker. The Spanish pair took a 4-2 lead in the third.

Down 3-5, Stephen served well to hold serve but in the next game, there wasn't any pressure as Moron held his own to pack off one of the doubles attraction from the Indian point of view.

"It is an added emotional support for us,'' said Prakash, of the whole family watching them compete.

The results:

Singles (second round): Jean-Rene Lisnard (Fra) bt 8-Anthony Dupuis (Fra) 7-5, 6-3; 2-Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha) bt Harel Levy (Isr) 6-2, 6-2; Igor Andreev (Rus) bt 7-David Ferrer (Esp) 6-2, 6-3.

Doubles (first round): Alex Lopez Moron & Albert Portas (Esp) bt Prakash (Ind) & Stephen Amritraj (US) 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3.

Tuesday's results:

Singles (first round): 4-Tommy Robredo (Esp) bt Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) 7-6, 6-7 (7-2), 6-4; Thierry Ascione (Fra) bt 6-Rafeel Nadal (Esp) 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

Doubles (first round): Julian Knowle (Aut) & Michael Kohlmann (Ger) bt Karsten Braasch (Ger) & Alexander Popp (Ger) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

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